


restless horizons

by Issay



Series: One-shot collection [13]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi - Fandom
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, F/M, Kylo Ren Has Issues, Kylo Ren and Rey Are Not Related, Star Wars: The Last Jedi Spoilers, Star-crossed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-14
Updated: 2017-12-14
Packaged: 2019-02-14 18:12:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13013358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Issay/pseuds/Issay
Summary: It's a cycle without a beginning and an end. Rey's lips are hot on his own and the kiss is desperate, hopeful, beautiful. Then she lets him go, her lips still hovering over his, their foreheads touching - it's intimate, sharing breath and looking into each other's eyes, and Kylo reaches to embrace her.Spoilers to TLJ. No, seriously.





	restless horizons

He has her on her knees before him, her wide eyes pleading, and he almost can't hear Snoke monologuing in the background. Almost. Kylo hears his master mock him and call him a puppet, and sees that he is, indeed, on Snoke's string, the Supreme Leader boasting how he knows every thought and intent of Kylo's. He looks down at the tears streaming down Rey's face, and holds his lightsaber a little bit tighter. It would be so easy, just cut her head off, extinguish the Rebellion's bright light for good, gather his praises. But she looks at him like she still believes he is redeemable, and Kylo reaches out.   
Surprise on Snoke's face as the lightsaber cuts him in half will amuse Kylo for the nights to come.   
Rey sends him a blinding smile and then they fight back to back, movements in perfect unison, in a balance he has never felt before.  She dances around him, never straying too far, and he almost gets distracted when she's in trouble. Almost. He can't help her if he dies himself. The throne room burns around them and Kylo fights, joyous, victorious, not alone. The floor is slippery with blood when the last of the guards falls.   
"Join me," he says, standing just a few inches away from her, too close, he wants to take a step back but he can't. Rey's eyes are bright, her breath still fast after the fight. "Join me, Rey, and we can rule together, we can…"   
He sees the light in her eyes go out, her face go blank, and he says other things, cruel things that play on her weakness and insecurity, and maybe it's not the best strategy but he's desperate. He reaches for her hand. Rey takes a deep breath, steps forward, grabs him by the lapels of his uniform and kisses him. The world stops.   
The Force shakes with this kiss and in a flash of  a moment Kyle sees it all - the Light and the Dark, the balance, death and destruction, life and hope. He sees a boy raised in the sands, taken to become a Jedi, only to become something dark and powerful, only to do what he was destined to do. He sees another boy, raised in the sands, swept away by an adventure bigger than himself, a witness to his own father's death. He sees himself, taken to become a Jedi, becoming something dark and powerful, his own father's murderer. And sees her, raised in the sands…   
It's a cycle without a beginning and an end. Rey's lips are hot on his own and the kiss is desperate, hopeful, beautiful. Then she lets him go, her lips still hovering over his, their foreheads touching - it's intimate, sharing breath and looking into each other's eyes, and Kylo reaches to embrace her.   
"I'm sorry," she whispers into his lips and something hard hits his head, knocking Kylo out.   
  
When it's over, at least for now, he reaches out. Rey is with what is left of the Resistance, he knows, on his father's ship and under his mother's command. The tremor within the Force told him that Luke Skywalker is no more and Kylo, in his rage and bitterness, broke another set of furniture, and almost choked life out of Hux. Kylo feels out of balance, like she had taken something away from him, and not it's just the two of them: the last Sith and the last Jedi. So he reaches out, the connection Snoke has opened in their minds still there, and half expects her to kick him out of her consciousness. When he opens his eyes and sees her, Rey is in tiny private quarters - it's a tiny space, really, a cot and a chest for her clothes, so he's hovering mid-space, somewhere where door should be. She doesn't look surprised.   
"I don't think I have it in me to fight with you right now," she admits and goes back to braiding her hair. With a soft sigh he sits down next to her on the cot and slips the hair ties out of her hands.   
"Let me," he mutters and wonders at how easily she allows him to touch her hair and the skin of her neck. His breath is scorching on her skin, his fingers careful.   
"He failed you," she says softly. Kylo scoffs.   
"He failed both of us, Rey. He should have trained you. We're the last of our kinds, sweetheart, and sometime soon I will kill you or you will kill me in some grand duel that will change the fate of the Galaxy - except it will not because war is profitable and there will always be someone willing to start one."   
Rey is silent for a long moment in which he finishes braiding the crown around her head. He ties the last braid off and kisses the back of her neck tenderly.   
"I don't like the thought of killing you," she confesses eventually, turning to face him. He nods.   
"I know. It would have been easier if you agreed to join me, Rey."   
"Would it stay your hand?" she asks with something that sounds like sadness in her voice. "Would it keep the members of the Resistance alive? Would it end slavery and suffering the First Order is putting peoples of the Galaxy through? Tell me that we can rule with law and justice instead of fear and violence, and I will join you in a heartbeat."   
Kylo doesn't answer. He doesn't have to, Rey sees the answers in his eyes anyway. With a sigh as soft as cool breeze on Naboo she reaches out and gently, just with her fingertips, she touches his face, mapping the creases and barely-there scars.   
"We're the two sides of the same, Kylo," Rey whispers, eyes meeting his. "And like you said, we're the last of our kind. I don't like thinking about killing you but I don't think we have much of a choice."   
He closes his eyes and leans into her hand, now resting on his cheek.    
"But not right now."   
"No," she agrees. "Not right now."   
Not bothering to open his eyes he kisses her and this time it's not desperate - it's a bit sad and tastes a lot like tears and lost chances. She responds in kind, her other hand flying up to frame his face, he grabs her waist and pulls her so that she slides onto his lap, facing him. Neither of them has any practice in the pleasures of flesh but it's as primal and instinctual as using the Force. For a long moment holding her oh so close and kissing like there is no world around them is enough but then it isn't, and one by one their clothes end on the small space of the floor, and Kylo's looking at her like she's the most precious thing in the universe.   
"We shouldn't," he says into his skin and Rey wholeheartedly agrees, but then he catches her nipple with this mouth and she doesn't say anything. The rhythm of their bodies is as old as the stars, and maybe it's a bit painful and most definitely messy, but it's also gentle and glorious and breaks Rey's heart in so many ways she doesn't think it can ever be fixed. For this priceless moment the age-old conflict their at the heart of doesn't matter. For this priceless moment they're just Rey and Ben, not the last Jedi and Supreme Leader of the First Order.   
"I want this moment to last forever," Rey whispers, eyes closed, ear pressed to that place on Kylo's chest where his heartbeat is most audible. He's holding her tight and she feels safe, as twisted as it may be. Outside, Resistance is making plans and grieving their dead, she can hear them over the roar of the engines if she strains her ears. She should feel like she's betraying them all. Somehow, she doesn't.   
"I know," he replies after a long moment of silence and tenderly kisses her forehead. She lets him go and watches Kylo dress without a comment.   
"Next time I'll see you, it will be from across the battlefield. I'd hate for it to end like this."   
"We've never had much of a choice," she says with a tired smile. "Go, Ben."   
He looks like he wants so say something else but then he changes his mind and disappears. Rey feels the connection close  and shuts her eyes tight, trying very hard not to think.


End file.
